Tame the Fire
by cavesareforshipping
Summary: When the gAang runs into the most unlikely person, Katara can't help but be suspicious... [Set after DoBS.]
1. In the Forest

**Full Summary:** When the most unlikely person forms an alliance with Aang's group, Katara can't help but be suspicious…

**Disclaimer: **If I did own Avatar, Azula _would_ be a purple 400-foot platypus bear. But she ain't, hm?

**A/N:** Hi! This is my third story on here, and it also happens to be the longest so far! I hope you'll enjoy it! I just watched DoBS two days ago, and the thought of _-I'd say a spoiler here, but I won't-_ is just plain sweet! On with the fanfic!

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**Chapter One: In the Forest**

Katara couldn't sleep. And she could barely breathe. She couldn't even think, now that she thought about it—which she couldn't do, because she couldn't think any thoughts without thinking another thought which she thought she could not think because her thoughts were making her think she could not think any thoughts—

Yup, she couldn't think straight.

There were so many things going on in her mind, that she couldn't even focus on one thought to ponder on. The Day of Black Sun was a failure, true, but there was more to the story than just that… so many things had happened during that whole time.

First off, her father was almost in the state of _dying_ in the battle. Thank goodness she was there to heal him, and that Sokka was there to lead the rest of the warriors. But what could have possibly happened if she _wasn't_ there? She knew that Hakoda was a great fighter, but could he have been beaten senseless with every Fire Navy soldier there was, him being the leader and all. What could have happened then? Katara closed her eyes, the thought of her father's lifeless corpse in the middle of the fields breaking her heart. She was becoming quite pessimistic, true, so she didn't want to dwell on that any further. She should have been happy with all the people who she was around now--

Her eyes wandered around the whole group, her hair fluttering in the wind as Appa continued to fly in the twilight. She saw Haru and Toph, the two earthbenders sleeping soundly. She saw Sokka and The Duke, snoring in sweet peace. She saw Teo, his eyes closed in a happy reverie, though sitting stiffly in his wheelchair…

And then there was Aang, up in the front of the bison, gently holding Appa's reins. His head was tilted back in a funny way, as if he was dozing off.

"Must…stay…awake…" Katara heard him mumble in a groggy voice.

He didn't, however. He was just too worn out to do so. (Though, thank Agni Appa knew where they were headed. He didn't exactly need a pilot.)

Katara smiled. I mean, come on, it was _Aang._ Sweet, lovable Aang. The same kid who penguin sled with her in the snowy mountains of her nation. The same kid who just _loved_ to have fun, all the time.

The same kid who wiped out an entire fleet of Fire Navy ships effortlessly.

The same kid who was the reincarnate of thousands of powerful forces.

The same kid who doubted his abilities to be the almighty avatar.

No matter how upset Katara was that Aang had changed so much, she just had to accept he was becoming more and more different. But she just didn't know what made him have a change of _heart_. A change of heart for _her,_ that is. She was… extremely confused about what was going on. Was it love? Or was it last-minute hopelessness that drew him to kiss her…? She just didn't know, and she didn't really want anything to change between her and Aang. Everything was just… happening so fast.

At this point, Katara's mind was totally blank. She figured she could sleep now, so she went to one side of Appa's saddle, lied down, closed her eyes, and waited to fall into a dream. And she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

After twenty minutes, Katara was getting pretty bored, with nothing to think about.

Just then, Appa growled happily. This woke up everyone (except Sokka)—despite that it was still night—and Aang looked out at what Appa had his eyes on.

"Land! You found land, buddy!" He gazed down at his bison with a big smile.

This was true. Up ahead, just a couple of miles away, was a beach, that had a big forest right behind it, which was perfect for supplying all of them for food—with all the great great vegetation!

Earlier, almost right after Appa had taken off in the end of the siege at the eclipse, everyone had decided that they had to stray far away from the capital as much as possible. They had thought that this would be easy, but they never seemed to find any land after that. It took almost _forever_, especially since none of them had any real experience of traveling the Fire Nation. The last pit stop had been the invasion! And that was a whole day ago! That was even longer than the time when they had been chased by Azula—They were lucky that Appa had all that armor now, to protect him from the cold of the night.

The bison landed on the island, and once everyone was off of his back (since Sokka was still asleep, Aang had to airbend him out of the way), he lied down lazily, and slept. (The sand was surprisingly comfy!)

"Everyone," said Aang, "get some rest. We gotta collect some food for Appa tomorrow, as well as build up our camp—G'night." He curled himself up on his bison's tail, with Momo doing the same thing.

Haru, Teo, The Duke and Toph returned half-hearted replies, and slept again. Katara, on the other hand, didn't really feel sleepy at all, so she snuck out of camp, with one of her water skins still full, and walked into the forest.

The forest had quite a spooky feel to it, though at least it wasn't as muddy or eerie as that swamp they went to last time. The trees were tall, and Katara could barely see the stars above her, since they were so bushy. There were also pretty flowers here and there, but she wasn't quite certain what type of flowers they were, because it was so dark. Katara knew it was pretty stupid wandering into a forest she wasn't familiar to without a torch or at least some sort of light, but since her mind was so blank, she couldn't think straight.

Katara wandered a little more for a couple of minutes, and she was getting slightly drowsy. It was time to head back to the others. She turned around, trying to figure out which way the campsite was. She started getting confused, turning and turning, seeing a bush, a cobweb, a flower, another bush, a tree, another tree, another-_nother_ tree, tree, tree—Oh boy, now she just saw trees! Was that boulder just there? Wasn't that duckfrog hopping the other direction a while ago? Hey—why did that stump look like Gran Gran?!

Katara eventually got to the hopeless conclusion that she was lost. Scratch that—she was _definitely_ lost. Her heart pounded at the thought. How on earth would she be able to get back? Her head started to ache, and she was getting dizzy from all the stress. She rubbed her temples, and sat on that Gran-Gran-stump. "Sorry Gran Gran," she apologized. Sweet Agni, she wasn't just dizzy, she was getting delusional! For a few moments, she just stayed on the stump, trying to relax, and to clear her mind (which was, ironically, blank just minutes ago).

In the distance, a young man watched Katara trying to calm herself down. He figured now was the perfect time—she was totally distracted anyway. Thank goodness he found her. He was… kind of lost, too. But maybe she could lead him to her little friends once she was ready. Or maybe he should just attack. Or follow her, and then attack. _Or_ maybe try to befriend her so she could trust him.

Yeah, he liked that idea.

Eventually, after some time, Katara stood up and looked around, a little more level-headed than she was earlier. The guy, this whole time, had been watching her, crouching behind a bush. Oh, how his legs were cramping from sitting there for so long!

Katara glanced around, squinting in the dark, trying to find some kind of clue to which direction she had gone. All she seemed to remember seeing before was that bed of flowers she had stopped to smell earlier. Though this was just a faint memory, it was good enough for her, so she started walking.

The more and more she walked, the more things she recognized—like the big cobweb, a family of little duckfrogs, a special tree that had smoother bark against the others… she was very lucky. After a while, she saw a huge trail of rocks that led to the campsite, which looked like it was just a quarter of a mile away! She was happy and proud that she made it—She would have ran there… If she just wasn't so tired!

Katara yawned, her sleepiness getting to her. But she kept going, thinking that once she reached the campsite, she could sleep as long as she wanted to…

The moon was full and bright, giving her strength to keep going. But then…

One strong hand grabbed her wrist. Katara was shocked and taken aback by this sudden gesture, and struggled frantically to pull free. The hand wouldn't let go—Its strong grip wouldn't let her! However, Katara grunted and groaned as she tried to pull away with all might, and was free. She attacked the stranger with her water whip, and the man defended himself with a fire shield.

For a split second, Katara saw the light of the fire reflect off of the man's gold eyes giving off a frightening glare.

She wanted to give off another whip, but she was exhausted, and couldn't push herself to do so. And so, with the little energy she had left, she ran towards the campsite, her feet pounding as fast as her heart.

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**A/N: **Yup, writing a 1000-word chapter is my idea of procrastinating at school! Cheers! Reviews are definitely welcome!


	2. The Foe

**Disclaimer: **If I did own Avatar, Azula _would_ be a purple 400-foot platypus bear. But she ain't, hm? (Copy, paste… So I decided to recycle it, you got a problem with that?)

**A/N: **Okay, I've got only five minutes to post this baby up, so this note will be very short: mystinalchemist, thank you very much for nice review, and everyone who have put this story in their alert list!  Enjoy the new chapter! (Whoa, two thousand words! 8D) This is my first time writing a long action scene, so if you like it, I'll be so merry that it'll make you throw up! Cheers!

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_For a split second, Katara saw the light of the fire reflect off of the man's gold eyes giving off a frightening glare._

_She wanted to give off another whip, but she was exhausted, and couldn't push herself to do so. And so, with the little energy she had left, she ran towards the campsite, her feet pounding as fast as her heart._

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**Chapter Two: The Foe**

Gasping for air, Katara felt weaker and weaker by the minute. Her chest started to ache from breathing so hard, and her throat became swollen. The amount of energy she had was wearing thin. Soon, she became incredibly exhausted. But she could not give up! She looked over her shoulder and saw that the stranger was trailing behind her, not too far away. The campsite, however, was starting to get closer and closer, as far as Katara could see.

Panting! Pounding! The chase felt more intense, and it was getting harder to escape from the man. But she saw that he wouldn't be stopping any time, so neither was she.

"Oh!" Katara groaned as she sprained her ankle. It was nothing serious, but it hurt so much running! She didn't stop though—her own health wasn't her priority, it was to get to the campsite to warn Aang about this… This firebender!

The stranger smirked as he saw the girl ready to collapse, and his determination got him to run faster. She never stopped, however, and this annoyed him tremendously. His impatience was getting the better of him, and he thought up a way to get her to stop right in her tracks: he swiftly brought out one of his swords…

"NO!" Katara exclaimed, as she tripped over a sharp, cold blade. She fell face-first in a pile of goopy, disgusting mud. But she didn't care that she was a mess; the stranger had caught up with her! The chase was over—She had stopped, and had lost.

Her heart raced as the man inched closer to her, and she looked up to his shady face. There was enough light to show his victorious smirk.

The stranger was happy he had caught up with her indeed, and slowly walked closer to her. Katara's heart quickened, and wondered what he was going to do to her. Oh dear, she had heard many stories about the cruelty of the citizens of the Fire Nation—they were merciless captors, and punished their prisoners in many ways that one could think of. Those were, however, just stories of the formal Fire Nation soldiers. Who knows how terrible this mysterious firebender (obviously skilled)—one who lurked in the _woods—_could be?

The poor girl's rapid pulse was getting to her; she was getting very frightened. For what seemed like a long time, she lay there absolutely motionless, eyes closed, terrified—wondering what her captor would do.

Eventually, the man slowly raised his hand and subtly bent towards her. He was getting closer… _closer_…

The whole thing seemed to go in slow motion. As his hand reached towards her, Katara noticed a strong gust of wind pass by the leaves of the trees, momentarily giving her a flash of the moon. That semi second sight of the moon gave her the greatest chi rejuvenation she ever had—It was like reaching an oasis in the middle of a desert…

With her new energy, Katara gathered the biggest blob of water from the mud—and lifted herself up, while giving off the largest and most powerful water blast she could possibly muster!

The blast was huge, and the firebender hardly had any time to counter the attack; he created a fire shield, but it wasn't enough to save himself from Katara's unnatural current. It didn't however, injure him that much, but it_did _shock him quite a bit and had sent him a good distance away from his prey—enough for Katara to escape, and get a good headstart on a second chase.

She felt good—good for taking him down! She silently thanked the bright moon for giving her its power. Her legs felt stronger than before, and she knew she could make it to Aang on time to warn him! She looked over her shoulder for a second time, and thankfully, now she didn't find him anywhere to be seen!

Her feet pounded on the ground, and Katara had a huge smile on her face. She had succeeded! She had defeated him—She was victorious!

She was also getting cocky—that much she knew—but Katara was just so proud! But even though it did not look it, she was still in danger… She had to get to Aang! Oh, the campsite! It was drawing nearer! She could see Appa lying near the shore! Now she could see the six other figures sprawled across the ground! And _now_ she could see Aang's face, snoring away!

And she made it! She was back, she was back! Katara just felt the need to crawl into her knapsack and sleep—

But she didn't have time. She had to warn Aang about that… _stranger in the forest!_

As she rushed in the middle of the beach, she shouted, "Aang! Everyone! Wake up!"

Everyone groaned.

"_Wake up!"_

Again, her companions all lazily groaned.

Katara's patience wasn't really at a good level at this time._"Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup! WAKE UP!"_

This did—of course—catch everyone's attention.

"Kahhhh-tahhhh-rahhhh," Sokka whined, "What could you possibly want—especially at this time of night?"

"I couldn't sleep when we got here," his sister responded, her voice filled with urgency, "so I went into the woods—without a torch, sadly, and I know that was pretty stupid of me, Sokka, but I couldn't think straight and I needed some air—another reason why I wanted to go to the woods, where I—unfortunately—got lost, which made me go crazy and so I had to sit on a stump—which had an uncanny resemblance to Gran Gran—to calm myself down a bit, and when I felt better, I started to go around the forest and I had to look for a bed of fire daisies, which are quite sweet-smelling, now that I think about it—"

"Katara!" Sokka interrupted, (His sister has talking a mile a minute that he had to stop her at _some _point.) "And _where _are you going with this?"

Katara sighed. "I ran into a firebender on the way back here."

"You _what_?!"

"He looked really dangerous," she continued. "He was probably looking for Aang. We have to leave—now!"

"We don't have to rush. I bet we could beat him easily." Sokka yawned and went back to sleeping.

"Sokka, trust me on this! That guy is _really_ fast. I could have probably been killed out there, if it weren't for the moon."

"Whoa, hold on," said Aang, who never got a say on Katara's idea, "I'm kind of on Sokka's side here. I mean, we can take down a wee army of firebenders."

"There was only one firebender," Katara corrected.

"That's even_easier_," Aang said with a smile.

"But he was _fast!_"

"I have no doubts of my abilities Katara, and neither should you. You've beaten thousands of enemies before—you're a great waterbender! I mean, that guy in the woods couldn't have been _that_ good."

"He was."

Aang was silent for a moment, thinking up some things to discourage her from worrying about the firebender any longer. He came up with nothing, so he didn't argue.

He raised his hands as one final gesture. "Just go to bed, Katara. You look tired. If the firebender comes… we'll kick his butt." He flashed a smile towards her.

"But Aang—"

"Relax," Aang held her shoulders and gave her a friendly massage. "Sleeeeep," he said in a coaxing voice.

Katara had to admit that she _was_ slightly stressed out. And the massage felt really nice after all the running…

"Okay," she gave in, "but just… a little nap…"

Aang let go so she could head to her knapsack. Katara turned around to face him, returned the smile, and walked past him to her knapsack.

But just as she was ready to go to sleep, she spotted a shadowy figure ready to grab Aang's collar…

"Aang!" Katara exclaimed, immediately summoning her element from her water skin, "_Behind you!_"

Aang gave out a surprised, "Whoa!" as Katara water whipped the invader—who happened to be the stranger she ran into at the forest!

She couldn't really see the man, but something told her that it was definitely him. How he managed to sneak in the campsite, she didn't know. And she didn't _need_ to know. The fact that he was a cruel firebender bent on taking away Aang was a reason good enough for Katara to attack him.

Yet again, as he did a bunch of other times in the forest, he attempted to counter the attack with a fire shield. This time, it was easy, since the water that Katara had used for the whip wasn't so much. Again and again, she tried to whip him, yet she continuously failed. Since the stranger was using a fire shield for protection from her attacks, the whip became smaller and smaller, its water evaporating in the air.

Eventually, the whip was too short to be used, so Katara waterbended what was left of it back into her water skin. She wasn't completely defeated yet, though—there was still the sea at her left, and the firebender was not wise to choose fighting her during a _full moon._

However, seeing that the girl was distracted with bending the water in its container, the stranger took advantage of this and knocked her down with his Twin Daos (basically his swords).

Seeing Katara down, Aang, Sokka and everyone else were shocked. They had just been looking on the whole time they had been fighting, all hesitating to join the battle… including Toph!

No one was trying to attack him, so the firebender knew he was winning! He glanced at who he had been trying to see—Aang. The younger boy staggered back, not knowing what to do.

"Everyone!" Katara called from behind, "Don't let him get to Aang—under any circumstances!"

That was when the real battle started. Toph was the first to make a move on it, spontaneously throwing boulders at him. Haru followed this as well. The firebender, however, dodged these easily—ducking, running, and breaking some with his swords, moving in a circular motion. The Duke tried to pounce on him, and the little Freedom Fighter even succeeded—until the older boy got annoyed with the kid on his head and threw him off. His shrill yells was heard as he was tossed to sky. (Sokka broke his fall.) Momo was ready to strike, but he had the same idea as The Duke's and didn't want to end up sprawled on top of Sokka.

Toph attempted to attack the man again, this time by earthbending the ground under him. First, she cut the area where he was standing on into a square, and made the earth levitate. Then, she shook it like crazy, dizzying the enemy. Once she could tell that he had had enough, she let the ground go down.

At this time, the stranger was dizzy, and was not ready or prepared to fight… not yet.

Tough luck for him, because standing behind him was Sokka, who had managed to get up on time. ("Get offa me, Duke!" he said earlier, "I haven't gotten a turn to attack him, and I don't wanna miss my chance!") With a stroke of luck, he defeated him in one blow: banging his head with the handle of his black sword. Dizzy enough as he was, the enemy collapsed, defeated indeed. Sokka stood above him, a smirk on his face.

From the other boy's point of view, he saw seven mean figures standing and looking down at him. Everyone could now see clearly who he was, and they all waited for him to give them an explanation of why he was there.

"I need," he spoke, "to see—"

They leaned down at him, all suspiciously glaring at him.

"—the avatar," Zuko finished.

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**A/N: **Yeaaaah, predictable much? Well, please hit that review button so I could have some feedback on my writing—it will definitely encourage me to write better!


	3. Squabbles

**Disclaimer: **If I did own Avatar, Azula _would_ be a purple 400-foot platypus bear. But she ain't, hm? (Copy, paste… So I decided to recycle it, you got a problem with that?)

**A/N: **Ack, sorry for not posting this up sooner! T.T I'm pretty bad when it comes to things like consistency, but to make up for it, this chapter is MUCH longer (Five. Thousand. Words.) than I intended it to be. (Well, I didn't think it'd be this long to begin with, but still!) I spent about five hours crafting this chapter—two days if you count in all the breaks from in between.

Anyway, as you noticed, the title of this chapter is "Squabbles", because that's what the end of it is full of—really. 8D And since last chapter had a lot of action in it, this is pretty much the take-it-slow chapter. –counts how many times she said "chapter"-

So don't expect much action scenes at this point of the story, but a whole lot of drama and whimsy—well, at least my take on drama and whimsy.

On with the chapter!

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"_I need," he spoke, "to see—"_

_They leaned down at him, all suspiciously glaring at him._

"—_the avatar," Zuko finished._

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**Chapter Three: Squabbles**

The tension in the air was thick, and Zuko lay there defenseless, for he had dropped his swords when he was knocked out by Sokka, and he didn't want to hurt anybody with his firebending.

Nobody talked for a while ever since he spoke--they all just glared at him, because they were well aware of who he was. (Aang had told stories about his adventures from the day he got out of the iceberg, to the battle at Ba Sing Se.)

One face, however, eventually softened just a little—the avatar in question. He cautiously asked, "What are you doing here?"

Zuko cleared his throat. "Ever since the eclipse—" he started, and here he began to prop himself up with his arm—

"Watch out—he's gonna attack!" Katara pinned him back on the ground.

The prince glared at her, grunting. "You're _naïve._ I'm not here to ambush you—I'm here to join your group!"

"_Liar!_" The girl jerkily wrapped two hands around his neck, and choked him.

Zuko, his supply of air cut off, kicked her so he could breathe again. Doing this, he managed to at least sit up.

Aang attempted to break the two apart. "Hey, hey, stop! Stop, Katara—stop!" He succeeded, and then looked at the prince, a frown crossing his face. "So… you've come here to do _what_?"

"To join your group," the older boy responded. (He was still breathing hard after the sudden struggle, but was soon talking normally.) "Living in my nation again has made me realize how ruthless my father has been, as well as his soldiers. Discovering the consequences of this war has given me a chance to open up my eyes about how terrible the suffering most people are going through—to see how unfortunate these victims and refugees are—these families… these orphans—is devastating. And to just sit there and watch all of it and laugh like my sister and father would—is not something I know I can't do. I've realized that this petty war… is not worth fighting if chaos is all that it brings. Peace would make our world just ten times better—So that's why I'm here. I want to put an end to this war for _good_as much as you do, and prove that my father is just using this as a worthless conquest to have more power."

The whole time he had been talking, he spoke in a somewhat grave tone, leaving the others to wonder if he was being honest. By then, no one was glaring anymore, but was staring hard. They—except Katara—searched in his eyes to see if he was telling the truth. Toph sure knew he was, but she didn't say anything, because she could tell everyone else could see it too. He looked so sincere, yet solemn at the same time. His eyes were downcast, and quite upset, too.

Soon, everyone backed off, convinced by his reasoning. All eyes—well, except Toph's—drifted to the same person: Aang. And he said the same thing (almost) everyone was thinking: "You… can join us."

"_What_?!" objected one person—Katara, of course.

Zuko stood up, with all the new space he had. You probably would have thought he was expressionless if you were there at the time, but no, there was a slight hint of a happy smile on his face.

"Aang!" the girl continued, following after the younger boy, who was turning away from the rest of the group. "Y—you can't be serious! …Can you?"

"Katara," the young boy replied, "you heard what he said—and how he said it. All of that was sincere… I can tell."

"But didn't you say that when you ran into Azula during the invasion, Toph couldn't tell if she was lying or not? Couldn't lying be… some kind of_talent_ in their family?"

"It's obvious that Zuko and Azula are two completely different people." A smile creeped into his features. "Strike me with lightning if I'm wrong."

"But if he attacks—"

The boy's smile became a toothy grin. "If he attacks, I'll kick his butt. I've beaten him before—I'll be able to do it again." He looked up to the moon. "And it's still night time. I doubt _any_ firebender could beat me at this hour, no matter how trained they are."

Katara gloomily sighed.

"You need some rest. You've been fighting this whole time without any sleep. The night's still young, and you're tired. And it's not like you to worry about so much stuff at night—"

"I know, I _know_." She looked to her right, where the forest was. "But even after all this time, I _still_ can't sleep. Though maybe if I go around this place a bit…"

"Katara—"

"Just so I don't get lost next time, Aang. I'll be back in only a few minutes. And I'll bring a torch this time."

He hesitantly glanced at the shady woods. "Normally, I'd agree with you to do stuff like this in the middle of the night, but…"

"You've changed."

"Yes… I have." The boy glanced down, bashfully shuffling his feet. "Katara, you can go if you want to, but you still gotta get some rest. We have to prepare for the rest of our flight, and if we don't get to the Western Air by two days at the most…" He stopped short, rethinking his words. "Just get enough sleep so you won't be so tired tomorrow, okay?"

Katara nodded with a soft smile, and Aang turned around, walked towards Appa's tail, and gently lied down on it. Eventually, the girl heard him give off light snores, indicating that he was peacefully asleep.

She glanced around the campsite once more. It had looked just like the way it had been about an hour earlier, before she wandered towards the woods the first time. Almost.

She picked up a sturdy twig from the forest, and walked back again to where her allies were sleeping. She lit the tip of it with the campfire—which hadn't been there before, now that she thought about it. Although it had probably been set up while she and Aang had been talking. But by who?

Katara glanced around at the group of her sleepy friends. Couldn't have been Sokka—he was too sleepy to have done so. Couldn't have Toph—she couldn't_see_ a fire, much less _build_ one. Definitely couldn't have been Aang—she was talking to him the moment it was built. Couldn't have been Teo—with his disability, he couldn't really crouch down so he could light it up…

And though she could have gone into more detail about the others, she didn't, because another thought popped in her mind: How could had someone been able to build a fire so quickly in this windy weather? Though… she knew_someone_ who probably could.

Her bright blue eyes drifted towards one figure in the distance, one of whom she knew. He was leaning on a large boulder near the sea, his arms crossed. And he wasn't so far to let her tell that he was sleeping, just like everyone else.

Katara had to admit that it was very kind of Zuko to build a fire for them, especially since—despite that it was summer—it was such a cold night. But she didn't trust him. She didn't _want _to trust him. She felt that, one way or the other, he would betray them and turn them in to the Fire Lord.

With her torch, as Katara walked towards the forest, the word _liar_ flashed on and off in her head. But, whether it was Zuko or her herself it was pointed towards, she didn't know.

---

"Come on, guys! Wake up!"

Almost everyone present in the camp groaned.

It was morning of the next day, and Aang was trying (and, obviously, failing) to summon his group to wake up. But the other night, they had been so… _active_ that they had to just rest.

Zuko had woken up before Aang, though, and he was now poking the currently-weak fire with a skinny twig, in order to make it completely die out. Doing this, he remained almost completely silent.

Though no one expected this, Zuko was being very timid, for someone who was originally their evil, cruel, _angry_, pessimistic—here, I'd go on and on, but that would be drawing far from the point—enemy who relentlessly pursued them all the time. But, no, he was very quiet, not saying a single word to anyone.

Meanwhile, Aang was screaming at the top of his lungs to get them to wake up.

His yells eventually awoke someone: Katara. She slowly sat up in her sleeping bag, stretching out, and yawning. Her hair was completely down, as usual, so she brought out her bag of clips, and started working on her—as Sokka liked to call them—"hair-loopies".

Last night had been okay for her. The forest actually wasn't hard to get through—you just had to pay attention to a couple of details, like how often you saw a pile of rocks, what color the flowers nearby were (which she wouldn't have been able to tell the first time, without her torch), and, most importantly, which way the wind was blowing. The journey in the woods had been alright—and she even felt very calm from going there… surrounded by nature and all.

The first person who Katara noticed that morning was Zuko, who, at this time, had just finished putting out the fire. And it was odd that she noticed _him_ first, so quiet and almost even peaceful, whereas there was a twelve-year-old spiritual reincarnate stomping around in a beach, yelling as loud as he could.

Yes, Aang, was still going for it, and _no one_—with the exception of Katara, of course—had woken up ever since he had started shouting. This actually went on for about five minutes, and the poor boy's voice was getting hoarse, and he was clumsily kicking the sand, with his feet jerking it around as he weakly marched. (Thank goodness it wasn't windy, or else the sand would have been blown to his face.)

"HEYYYYY! _Wake up!_"

Finally however, Toph gave in, ("Ugh, Twinkletoes!" She rubbed her ears. "Would it kill you to cut a noise-sensitive girl some slack?") with Haru soon following her, then Teo, then The Duke. Sokka was still wrapped in his sleeping bag in a cocoon-esque sort of way, and Aang figured it was pretty useless to even bother to awaken him—the boy was so lazy, he could even sleep through the Great Battle if he wanted to!

With everyone—except Sokka—nice and awake, Aang announced, "We'll have to leave this place by nightfall to get to the Western Air Temple. Everyone, pack all the bags and the supplies we need to travel. Do whatever you want—we've still got a whole day. But when the sun goes down, we will be leaving _immediately_. Okay, first off, we'll need someone to be in charge of packing up Appa."

"I'll do it!" said a voice from the woods, and everyone looked in the direction it came from.

It was Sokka, holding a big pile of papayas (Katara was disgusted) and coconuts with a net-like sack.

Aang was confused. If_that_ was Sokka, then who was—

Momo sleepily emerged from Sokka's sleeping bag. A barely audible, sheepish "Oh" escaped Aang's lips.

"Where have you been, Sokka?" asked Toph.

The boy shrugged. "Hunting," he frowned sheepishly, "and, unfortunately… failing. But! Look at all fruit I got!" He opened the sack revealing much more fruits, like berries, bananas, and mangoes.

Aang smiled, his mouth watering. Without hesitation, he cracked open a coconut, and wolfed it down. (He didn't know why, but he sure was _hungry_.)

"Anyway," Sokka continued, "I guess I can pack up everything on Appa for the next trip."

The younger boy looked up at him and nodded, sticky coconut juice slopped all around his mouth.

Sokka got to work, while the others set off in different directions to keep themselves busy. Katara reloaded the barrels (the ones to be placed on Appa) with more water, because she used it all up from the Invasion. Zuko picked up all of the firewood that was left from last night's fire (though no one seemed to notice that he was actually helping, because he was being so silent and subtle). Teo and The Duke playfully bathed Momo, chuckling as the lemur rolled around in the shallow water near the shore. Toph and Haru went to the end of the beach—which wasn't so far—where the rocks and boulders were found, so they could practice some earthbending for fun.

"Could you teach me how to make a rock suit?" asked Haru.

"Nah—how 'bout some boulders?"

The older of the two considered this. "Boulders? Aren't those pretty… basic?"

"I meant _stand_ on the boulders," said Toph, kicking the sand. "I can barely see a thing from here!"

"Oh—right. I forgot that… you were…"

"Blind? Yeah, everyone does. Now guide me so I can get on the boulders!"

"Okay. Just inch forward a bit, then take a left—"

"Carry me to one, idiot!"

With an embarrassed little "Oh—okay", Haru lifted Toph up (she was a lithe little girl—very light to carry, despite her big-headed, sassy personality) and set her on one of—as she had demanded—the boulders. Toph was visibly happy to finally get to see everything so clearly.

That was when the real fun began. The two of them decided to do some hardcore sparring. With her disability set aside, the younger earthbender knew that this was her turf. However, Haru was very confident as well. Even though he knew that Toph could "see" despite the fact that she was blind, he still underestimated her.

Big mistake. By Toph's first strike, Haru could tell she was very powerful! First, the girl scooped out a large, _large _chunk of her element from beneath the sand, throwing it towards her opponent with great force, and with an effortless, and somewhat graceful way as well. Haru could only act so fast—he broke the boulder into pieces just in time. Again and again, Toph repeated this move, because the way she was positioned at the top of the boulder, strained her from shifting to any other attacks.

Haru practiced more on defending himself, because his opponent was slamming rocks like_ crazy_! He had to counter her attacks with some of his own—sometimes, he either dodged the boulder, or broke them. Most of the time, he did the latter. However, when he decided to dodge one, the big chunk of earth flew over his head, narrowly missing him. Lucky.

One unfortunate person, though, was not. At least… not when the boulder landed on his head! A cry was heard from the campsite, and Haru couldn't help but be curious, so he turned around to see who it was. He gaped when he saw the person sprawled on the ground jerkily rubbing the back of his head—his face twisted in pain. Haru immediately grabbed Toph from the boulder and both ran towards where the incident happened.

"Augh," said Sokka, "my heaaaaaaaaad…"

Katara, who was kneeling over him, had a frown coming on to her face. "Don't worry, Sokka," she reassured, bringing out some water from one of her water skins to heal him. "You'll be okay."

"No, I won't," her brother responded, his voice catching a melodramatic tone. "My time has come, Katara. To leave… forever…"

Katara rolled her eyes. "Sokka, no one dies just by being hit in the head with a little boulder."

"I see… the angels! The spirits!" Sokka's voice, at this point, had become very high-pitched—very childish. "I see… Yue!"

"Yue's the spirit of the _moon. _Today's _morning_, genius."

"And yet," the boy was, obviously, becoming pretty dizzy from being hit so hard, "I still see her. I see Agni, too. Opposites. For balance. The moon and the sun. Blue and red." His voice suddenly cracked and became hoarse. "Such a pretty sight!"

He then spent the next minute laughing nonsensically, the concussion starting to wear him out. Once he stopped laughing, he pretty much went unconscious, leaving Katara and the rest of the group (though Zuko was just leaning against a tree, ignoring everyone else) pretty puzzled.

"He got," said Katara, very confused, "injured pretty badly. I think that's the craziest I've seen of Sokka so far."

"Is he okay?" asked Aang, his breath smelling certainly fruity.

"He'll be fine, as long as we leave him alone. The less noise he hears surrounding himself while he sleeps, the better. We don't want his mind to be completely messed up."

"Well," said Teo, "who's gonna take care of packing the stuff while Sokka's unconscious?"

"I can do that," Aang responded. He looked towards the oldest boy who was sitting near the woods, and called out, "Zuko, do you wanna help?"

The "timid" boy looked up, slightly surprised at the sudden question.

Aang waited for a response, but never got one. "Well?" he called again.

Zuko slowly stood up, and, as if he didn't have a choice, he nodded stiffly.

The younger boy smiled. "Okay—so Zuko and I will be loading up Appa. Katara, is Sokka getting any better?"

"I'll be honest—I don't know."

"Are you healing fast enough?" asked Toph.

"I'm _trying_."

"Well, I'm picking up some pretty _slow_ vibrations right now."

"Oh yeah, Miss Sass?" said Katara, getting slightly annoyed by the younger girl. "Then I'd like to see you do it!"

"Just heal faster!"

"I told you! I'm trying!"

"Then pick up the pace!"

Katara growled. She looked at everyone else. "How am I supposed to heal Sokka any better if I can't _concentrate_?" Furious, she took her brother by his wrist, dragging his unconscious body across the sand, towards the woods.

Everyone looked at each other, weirded out by Katara's sudden outburst. They looked on as the girl stomped off of the beach.

Haru sighed. He was feeling very guilty. He was, after all, the one who actually ducked and let the boulder hit the poor guy. He ran after Sokka—well, more of the girl who was pulling him—to apologize, running to the forest.

It took a while for him to figure out how to get through all the trees, as the boy continued to follow Katara. That hint of blue—from her Water Tribe kimono—stuck out from all the earthy surroundings. And she was just straight ahead, and not so far away.

Finally, he reached her. He found himself looking at a clear river that had a rocky bank. Crouching near it was Katara, with Sokka still lying unconscious on the ground. She wasn't looking at Haru the moment he came, though. She was too busy healing her brother to even notice that someone had followed her.

"Katara?" He approached her.

"Oh—Haru!" the girl smiled. "I didn't see you there."

"So… what are you thinking?"

"Well, ever since a big rock collided with Sokka's cranium—"

"Um, what _else _are you thinking?" Haru wasn't ready to apologize just yet.

Katara sighed, looking down at her brother. "Oh, nothing."

Haru sent her a knowing glance.

The girl sighed for the second time. "Well, what Sokka said earlier—well, at least before he got knocked out—when he was talking all that gibberish about Yue and Agni—them being opposites and all—it reminded me of—"

"Zuko?"

"Sort of," Katara replied, nodding. "This whole him-joining-our-group thing is kind of bothering me. Zuko is our _enemy_. I don't see how Aang has the guts to trust him…"

---

Meanwhile, Aang and Zuko were hoisting up their supplies on Appa. They had no problems doing that—and made no disagreements whatsoever.

However, it was the conversation they were having about fighting the war which was making the two so temperamental…

"…The way you fly your bison makes you embarrassingly vulnerable to any attack!" Zuko was saying.

"Hey, I fly just fine!" Aang retorted, pushing up one of the rolled-up knapsacks.

"Any enemy can fire up and not miss it!"

"Appa's got this armor for a reason—"

Zuko swiftly jumped off of Appa, and looked closely at one of the bison's feet. "The armor's leather won't allow your little _beast_ to move so quickly—especially in the sky."

Aang wasn't really angry that Zuko had criticized the way the armor was built—what really ticked him off was that he had called his bison… "A_beast_?! How _dare _you Appa a beast!"

"It's your own fault you chose such a barbaric animal for your house pet!"

Although it was such a petty and immature comment, this made Aang's anger flare up so much. _No one_ will ever trash-talk Appa and get away with it!

---

"Aang probably trusts Zuko for a reason," Haru replied. "I mean, why would he let some evil firebender join us so quickly if there wasn't some good he saw in him?"

Katara pouted. "No, Aang is just a loving person who can give anyone a second chance—"

"Then you should give Zuko a second chance as well—"

"Let me finish: No matter how high the risks of staying ten feet from that person are. And Zuko is a deceptive person. I would know."

"I think you're being a teensy bit judgmental." He gave her a firm look.

Katara frowned. She resumed healing her brother, bending out some water from the river, not responding.

Haru's expression softened. "Katara," he said, "you once gave my people strength, speaking to them in your inspirational words—I can't help but do the same for you. Hasn't there ever been a time when you saw a different side of him—and you wanted to believe him so much?"

The girl cautiously caressed the bump on Sokka's head, her solemn eyes wistfully gazing at the wonderfully clear pool of her element. Katara's blue orbs then drifted to Haru. "Once," she finally answered. "When we are in the caves of Old Ba Sing Se, before he joined Azula. He opened up to me, telling me things I never would have thought he went through. He just looked so sincere, and so different from the person I've always thought he was. And his eyes were very honest—they showed such sorrow, and so much _pain. _It was as if even though he didn't say so much, I could see the hurt and forgotten memories of his past—like there was some _bond_ between us."

"Was there?"

"I don't know, even up 'till now. What's making me feel so much hatred against him is that I'm torn between believing if he can change, or if he'll deceive me again. It's heartbreaking not to know if he's a liar or not. I just can't trust him now. It seems to be the safest thing to do."

"Katara," said Haru, "whether or not he chooses to change is his decision, not yours. All you can do is to _persuade_ him to come to the good side. But you already have his word that he _has _become a different person, so why doubt it?"

Katara remained silent for a while. "I—I guess you're right, Haru. I just feel so conflicted about being around him that—oh, I don't even know anymore. But if the time is right, I guess I could talk to him… Thank you, Haru." With a smile of gratitude, she hugged him. He hugged her back.

However, both of them were so ignorant hugging that they didn't realize that Sokka had gotten up and trekked back to the campsite. Oh well, at least they were both happy from the friendly embrace.

"Hey, Haru?" Katara whispered in his ear.

"Yeah?" he whispered back.

"How do you know how to give advice?"

"My mother used to be a marriage counselor, so…"

"Oh."

"Yeah. Don't tell anyone."

Katara giggled. The two of them broke the hug. "Hey," she suddenly said, "where's Sokka?" She gaped, looking around for her brother.

---

Sokka tripped again.

Curse these stupid twigs!

He landed in a pile of mud.

Curse these stupid puddles!

The poor boy growled. He was still feeling a tad bit dizzy from being hit by the boulder, but he seemed okay enough to walk steadily…

And by "walk steadily", he meant continuously tripping over stray branches, whirring unexpectedly past half-visible cobwebs, being accidentally bitten by a family of rabid squirrel-hares, running for his life after knocking down a hive of scorpion bees, and lastly—oh, and he hated this the most—landing, splishing and _splashing_ into gooey piles of mud again and _again_, most of which are mixed with horrid boar-q-pine dung!

Sokka was _not_ having a good day—at least, ever since he was knocked out. The forest hadn't been such a trouble to get through the first time he had come, when he had brought that big amount of fruits earlier. And now, going through it was like a nightmare!

He grunted as he attempted to pull himself up from the ground, but he was so dizzy that he gave up and landed flat on his face, the mud making a squishy sound from the impact of it. His head was throbbing, and the big bump on it wasn't helping at all.

With a groan, Sokka tried to get himself up again, this time using his sword for support. He succeeded, letting out a sigh of relief. He resumed walking, and his head started to clear up, so he became more cautious with where he was stepping.

Soon, he found the sun shining brightly, its rays emerging from the shade of the trees. He was back at the campsite. There, he found Zuko and Aang practically ready to pounce on each other.

"…Take that back!" Aang was saying.

"No!" Zuko indignantly responded.

"I said _take it back_!"

"I just said you couldn't fly a little bison in a battle long enough for you to save your life! Y'know, despite your fighting style, your 'evasive techniques' while using _that animal_ are lousy!"

"His name is _Appa_!"

"I couldn't care less about what the bison's name is!"

Hearing this, Appa gave out a low growl. Aang felt his blood boil. "'Couldn't care'?_'Couldn't care'?! _You should be lucky we even formed an alliance with you!"

Here, the two boys began to have a shouting match, each of them equally screaming at the top of their lungs. The air was filled with angry shouts of "Just because we're allies in fighting the war for good doesn't mean we're the best friends ever!—Oh yeah?! Well, it's pretty stupid of you to act like the bad guy right when you're with said allies! You are _this _close to being cut off of our group! Didn't your mother ever tell you about any logic?!—Hey, don't drag my mother into this!—And why can't I?! She might have been a cold hearted woman just like you are right now!—How dare you talk about my mother like that! You don't even _have _a mother!—WHY I OUGHTTA…!"

Sokka didn't plan on watching Aang attempting to punch Zuko, or the petty battle that followed soon after. He was too busy looking for the person he was ready to blame for the bump his head. And when he _did_ find that person, he pointed an accusing finger.

"Toph!"

"Oh hey, Sokka." The girl absentmindedly replied. She tried to focus on feeling the vibrations to "watch" the fight unfolding before them.

He tapped his foot. "_Well_?"

"'Well' what?" she asked distractedly.

"This bump on my head—you just _know_ you did this to me."

Toph sighed, giving up on trying to "see" Zuko and Aang. "Hey, that wasn't completely my fault—"

"But you _admit_ you did this!"

"I fired it, but only because Haru and I were sparring."

"Pfft. That's just an excuse!"

"I'm tellin' the truth!" she retorted.

"But you said you fired it!"

"But I wasn't aiming for you!" Toph was starting to get a little angry.

"Liar!"

Sokka's persistence was definitely starting to get to her. "If I was aiming for you, it would have been way stronger than it had actually been!"

"Prove it!"

"And how?!" Toph furrowed her brow. Sarcasm coated her words. "Oh wait—I know! I could get _another _boulder, aim it straight to your head, and knock your brain out! Yeah! I think that could be arranged!"

From this, the two also started squabbling, both almost at each other's throats—very much like the other fight occurring across the other side of the campsite.

"Rub in my face that I don't have a mother, will you?!" Aang shouted.

"Well, at least I don't randomly pull out family members as ammo in ego-breaking insults!" Zuko yelled.

"Why are you always so smug and annoying and dishonest whenever you're around people?!" Sokka bellowed against Toph.

"Well, why do _you_ point fingers and accusations at whoever you come in contact with?!" she angrily responded.

Teo and The Duke had been watching this the whole time.

Duke picked his nose and turned to the older boy. "Do you think we should break the fights?"

"Nah," Teo answered, eagerly petting the little lemur that was sleeping on his lap, "this is by far the most entertaining thing I've ever seen!"

Both boys looked on, as the quarrels continuously went on, nonstop.

---

"Hm," said Haru, "Sokka probably went back to the campsite. We should maybe head back too."

Katara shrugged, "I guess."

And so, the two of them walked back, not at _all_ expecting to reach the chaotic scene they were headed towards…

---

**A/N: **TEH END OF DAH CHAPPEH! O.O Ugh, if you think Zuko was OOC in this chapter, I completely understand. His character is just so hard to capture!

And thank you all so much for the very lovely reviews and faves! They are very much appreciated.

Please, _please_ hit that review button. –does puppy dog eyes- Please?

Oh, forgot to mention one last thing... I'm moving this story up to a T rating--just to be safe, that's all.


	4. The Awkward Days

**Disclaimer: **If I did own Avatar, Azula _would_ be a purple 400-foot platypus bear. But she ain't, hm? (Copy, paste… So I decided to recycle it, you got a problem with that?)

**A/N:** You guys are the best! I love it people leave some feedback this story, so thank you, thank you, _thank you_ very much for the reviews!

Okay, I'm not gonna bore you and rant about how many words this chapter has, (it's pretty short, though. D8) but I will say that this story has ten thousand words! 8D I hope any of those picky readers'll run to this so their eyes can burn from its suckishness! –skips merrily like ol' Spongebob-

Anyway, enjoy!

---

"_Hm," said Haru, "Sokka probably went back to the campsite. We should maybe head back too."_

_Katara shrugged, "I guess."_

_And so, the two of them walked back, not at all expecting to reach the chaotic scene they were headed towards…_

---

**Chapter Four: The Awkward Days **

The day's events had been _horrible_.

Not much had happened after Katara and Haru (even though Teo and The Duke were upset to see the action end) broke the two fights through the campsite. Toph seemed somewhat relieved that someone had finally come to end Sokka's shrill battle cries from torturing her. Sokka didn't want to stop fighting, but his accursed weak metabolism eventually wore him out. It took more work to get Aang and Zuko to stop, though—Aang was pretty upset about what the older boy had said about his bison _and_ his nonexistent mother, and Zuko was simply attacking him out of—well, old habits.

"What's it gonna take," Katara had shouted over their battle, "to get you two to stop?!"

"_He_ called Appa a beast!" The younger boy had angrily pointed a finger. "I want an apology! Now!"

Katara frowned, and her eyes drifted towards Zuko. She knew that Zuko would say no—he was just filled with so much pride that he couldn't _possibly_ even try to say sorry…

But Zuko had stopped. Katara's heart beat faster, startled by the sudden cease of fire. (Literally.) What now? What on earth was he going to do _now_?

Aang was pretty surprised, too, but he didn't let it show in his face. He stood with stubborn confidence, his arms crossed, and his brows angrily furrowed. The boy's big grey eyes were then glaring at Zuko, as if trying to mentally burn through him.

As the silence continued, Aang grit his teeth in impatience. Where was his apology? He couldn't stand all the stillness!

Half a minute went by, and Zuko still didn't talk. His expression looked neither angry nor calm—it was unreadable.

And, from Katara and Aang's point of view, it was _aggravating_.

Seconds passed on. The youngest of all the three began to get a big headache from waiting. (And cramping.) His companion sighed and stared at the prince, waiting for an answer. She gulped as the oldest boy shifted slightly, as if finally ready to talk…

After one last moment, Zuko finally mumbled the seemingly incomprehensible words: "I'll change."

Katara and Aang glanced at each other for a bit, not understanding what he had said. What he meant, they didn't know. Neither of them responded—even Aang was confused.

Zuko wasn't finished, though. He looked at the ground, with that grave look again. "Months of being enemies have really gotten me to get used to doing these kinds of things—like attacking you. Now that I've switched sides—everything's become different."

He looked up, a grim expression on his face. "I haven't been the best ally—and I know that," he continued, "but I want you to know that I can change… for the better."

By that time, Aang's face had softened. "And…?"

Zuko sighed. That was the hard part of his metamorphosis. He frowned a bit, but managed to get rid of his pride. "And… I'm sorry for insulting you."

"Mention the specifics." Katara frowned as she looked closely at Aang, who was clearly enjoying this.

"For insulting your bison. I'm sorry, young child."

"Avatar," the younger boy corrected.

"Avatar—"

"Aang."

Zuko was getting a little annoyed by this. A little throb was starting to head to his temples. He stormed off to the other side of the beach, just to restrain himself from getting any urges of killing the boy.

"Aw, come on!" Aang called after him. "It's an easy name to pronounce! 'Aang'! A-A-N-G!"

Katara sighed and shook her head in disapproval of Aang's—whose name _really_ wasn't hard to pronounce—immaturity.

_That_ had all happened in the morning. It was now night time, and everyone—yes, including Zuko—was huddled up around the campfire. Toph shivered as the cold hit her pale, sensitive skin. The Duke was attempting to share her his cape to use as a blanket, but since it was so small, it almost ripped in half. Teo, Sokka and Haru just stared at the fire absentmindedly. Katara had her eyes on something—or rather… some_one_—a little more interesting, though… which was Zuko, of course. Aang was too busy hungrily slurping on a mango (to even notice the love of his life staring at another man).

Aang had been eating a lot of fruits lately. Ever since Sokka had come back from collecting food, (before he got hit, remember?) the little boy had been pigging out on coconuts, plain nuts, berries, bananas, oranges, papayas, (_again_, Katara was disgusted) and—his favorite of all—mangoes… all day.

By about mid-afternoon, Sokka had warned Aang not to eat so much of the fruits, or they'd have to reload on the supplies. Of course, he didn't listen. He just kept on stuffing his cheeks 'til they were so full and sticky with fruit.

Above the crackling of the fire, a voice reached the young boy's ears. "Aang," Katara said, "I'm worried—you have to stop eating so much, unless you wanna start puking."

Toph laughed at this, having heard stories of the boy's weak stomach at times, but Aang ignored her, and responded to Katara with, "Nonsense. I'm just"—here, he belched—"Just fine." He rubbed his belly. He was getting pretty full, but he was still so hungry!

Aang picked up another mango from a large pile of fruits. Just as he was about to dig into it, he gagged, almost ready to barf. When he didn't, he attempted to eat the mango again, but just when it reached mouth halfway there, Katara exclaimed worriedly—

"Sweet mother of Tui and La, Aang! You're getting worse than Sokka!"

"Hey!" Her brother began to protest.

Katara ignored him and set her eyes fixed on the younger boy. In a gentle manner, she pried the mango from his hands, receiving weak whines from him. "I just don't understand," she said, "what's made you this _gluttonous_ lately, Aang."

"It's nothing. Really. I'm pretty hungry right now, Katara—can I have the mango back?"

"So you can pig on it and make yourself blow up? I don't think so."

Aang sighed, too tired to respond anyway. The boy leaned back at Appa's firm leg, and relaxed, warming his feet by the cozy fire. He suddenly found his eyes half-lidded. Eating _did_ tend to make him slightly sleepy, and from all that he ate today, he would probably be able to sleep in no time.

He was right. Katara watched as Aang breathed lightly in little reverie, his chest slowly moving up and down.

"Well, guys," she said to everyone, "he's finally aslee—"

She suddenly realized that everyone else had dozed off as well. What the—? Since when did everyone else start sleeping? She sighed and settled into her sleeping bag. She looked at all the peaceful faces that had drifted to rest. But she then realized that she wasn't the only one who was awake…

She gulped as her eyes landed on Zuko. Great. Her and Zuko—with everyone else asleep. That was just as bad as her and Zuko being _alone_!

Nervous to see that she was "alone" with him, she did the only thing she could think of: stare. Just… plain… _stare_. Zuko never noticed her do it before—why would she have to be worried about him noticing her now?

Zuko was getting a little self conscious as he felt two pairs of eyes on him—the same feeling he had been getting all day!

It was a… very _odd_ feeling. First, there was a tingling sensation in his spine, which then led to the stiffening of his neck. Then those little sensations would travel to his arms, numbing them in a strangely good kind of way. And _then_ his heart would beat fast for no reason at all!

The boy never knew a good reason for that feeling—he had made many guesses, though. It could have been some poison ivy he had picked up from the forest, but if it was, he sure would have been itchy right now. He guessed bees as well, yet that would never explain his sudden fast pulses that he tended to get.

Then he guessed his hidden fear of a ghost watching him, but he wasn't one to believe in spirits.

But that seemed to be the most reasonable guess of all—even if it was also the most outrageous as well.

The feeling was still happening, and Zuko just couldn't stand it anymore! He needed to know what was causing all this!

Out of frustration and curiosity, he looked up. What he saw made him do something he never thought he could have done in a long time—blush. That Water Tribe girl was staring at him… _flirtatiously_!

Katara's big blue eyes widened and, in a state of embarrassment, immediately looked down, heat rushing to her cheeks as well. Ack! She had been caught! She gulped and tried to hide as much as her body as she could in her sleeping bag. Her heart beat fast, her face beet red. Quickly, she struggled to get herself to sleep.

Zuko gulped in the awkward moment. It was pretty weird that they seemed this childish around each other, and that if the same situation occurred five months ago, they would be at each other's throats—but it was probably because he was still kind of new to the gang, and was just trying to get used to his new surroundings. But maybe… in just a couple more days, everything will be better.

For the first time, Zuko saw a different side to the Water Tribe girl—she always across in a very arrogant and angry way. Even in the crystal catacombs, she started out as someone very cross. At one point of that, though, she became emotional—crying in hurt and agony.

And _now_, curled up in that sleeping bag, he saw this bashful little girl—and that was something definitely new for him to see.

He suddenly really wanted to get to know her. Besides the time at Old Ba Sing Se, he never really talked to her that much. What was the girl's name again? Kantapha? Karmana? Kashatha? It started with a K, that much he knew…

The girl in the sleeping bag's cheeks got even more heated as Zuko asked her, "Your name is Katara, right?"

---

**A/N: **…I honestly did not know where I was going when I was writing this…

I played around with a bit of Zutara, though. 8D If you think it's starting to look cliché, just tell me so I can correct anything.

And if you read it carefully, you'll notice that the gAang kinda _forgot_ something... Don't worry, that was not another hole I missed in my writing. (-le sweatdrop-) It was intentional...

Anyway, please review, for either criticism or compliments! Thanks! –holds up a salami in case I have to threaten anyone with it-


	5. Confrontations and Introductions

**Disclaimer: **If I did own Avatar, Azula _would_ be a purple 400-foot platypus bear. But she ain't, hm? (Copy, paste… So I decided to recycle it, you got a problem with that?)

**A/N:** D'oh! Kill me. Just KILL me for taking so long with this! D: But I swear, I_did_ work hard on this, I really did! This is the longest chapter yet, (Don't worry, I won't babble non-stop about how many words this has. I promise. –sweatdrop-) but luckily, it's also the one with the most Zutara. Yay! Fluffiness ahead! Ya got THERVED, Kataangs! XP

Okay, ignore my idiocy, and just read the story.

---

_What was the girl's name again? Kantapha? Karmana? Kashatha? It started with a K, that much he knew…_

_The girl in the sleeping bag's cheeks got even more heated as Zuko asked her, "Your name is Katara, right?"_

---

**Chapter Five: Confrontations and Introductions**

Katara drew in a deep breath. Was he talking to her? Was he _talking_? To _her_?

What on earth was he trying to pull?! Did he want her to fall into a state of shock when he said that? Did he get bored with the fire and had nothing else to do—'cept ask her such a thing? Or was this just her mind fooling her—her own hallucinations?

The girl didn't look up from inside of her knapsack, her heart beating fast. Why would he even bother?! Was it because he caught her staring?

There was nothing wrong with staring! Sokka used to stare at his boomerang back in the day all the time, and he never tried to _talk_ to it. (Well, not in public.) Unless… she stared at him in a way she didn't mean to come across as…

She didn't mean to look coquettish! She was just… _bored_, that's all. She just needed to have her eyes on something. Did Zuko misunderstand? Because if he did—then that would explain the weird stare he was giving her.

How ironic. Now _Zuko_ was staring at _Katara_. Hm. It was like… the hunter becoming the hunted—the predator becoming the prey—the poe-tay-toe becoming the poe-tah-toe…

That didn't make any sense, but you get the point.

The thought of the prince's golden eyes on her sent a shiver down Katara's spine. And she spent the next moment shivering. And the moment after _that_ shivering.

And now, Zuko just didn't understand her nervousness—he just asked a question about her name. Who would get upset for something like that? Unless, of course, he was completely off with his guess, that it offended her.

"I was wrong, wasn't I?" he questioned, frowning.

The girl gulped. "W—what?"

"Your name," he said. "It's not 'Katara', is it?"

She pouted, sitting up. "It is."

Zuko looked away for a second, not knowing what to say then. He mentally cursed at himself._Why did I even bother to talk to her?_ His frown deepened, and he avoided her gaze, embarrassment in his eyes. To make himself look busy, he poked at the fire again, staring stupidly at it. _She was staring—and I was curious. But… I didn't have to say a word to her—_

Her voice piped up again. "Why do you ask?" She was furrowing her brow, clutching on to her sleeping bag.

The moment she spoke, the color drained from Zuko's face. Not even paying attention to what he was doing anymore, he did not realize that he had been poking the campfire even faster. But Katara did. She pouted even more, a little angry at what he was trying to do. _The nerve! So he makes_ me _embarrassed for staring and asks me my name, but I can't even question _why _he asks? Hmph._

Katara—though knowing that this was childish—turned her head out of frustration from the boy. She was even about to give out a huff, but instead, she continued to ignore him, and finally decided it was time to sleep. Seeing that Zuko was not going to answer her any soon, Katara leaned back into her knapsack, closing her eyes. Eventually, all she saw was black, and her mind drifted away…

The trees in the forest bristled in the soft wind and the campfire crackled lightly, but other than that, Zuko did not hear anything. Gold eyes finally looked up, and saw the Water Tribe girl sleeping, across the small flames._Her name,_ he thought, _is Katara. The Water Tribe girl is Katara._

Part of that thought made him frown. Water Tribe. It was what used to be an enemy nation._The people back home think I'm a traitor. I betrayed them. I betrayed Father—_

_Father?_ another thought from the back of his mind questioned. _When Father was proud of me, nothing seemed right. And he despised me the whole time. He scarred… and banished me. He was cruel. THAT was the reason I turned against him. That girl—right in front of me—believed that I could change, and I betrayed her. And NOW, I'm thinking of why I betrayed FATHER?! What is wrong with you—or me—or whoever I'm talking to?!_

Zuko furrowed his brow, and rubbed his temples. He needed some sleep. He had always been debating with himself, and he was tired of it. He was here, with his old foe, ready to go against Firelord Ozai, so he saw no point in thinking it over now. He grumbled a bit, as he hit the solid ground, positioning himself to get some rest.

---

"Hurry up, everyone!"

"Ugh, what is it _now_, Sokka?"

"Toph, aren't you forgetting something?"

"Forget what?"

"Aw, come on! You know what you forgot!"

"I'm too tired to guess."

"And since when did you like sleeping in?"

"_Everyone_ loves sleeping in." The blind yawned and snuggled back into her little bed of rocks.

It was dawn now, and surprisingly, Sokka was the only one fully awake. Everyone was a little worn out from yesterday's work, whereas the warrior had had enough rest when he was hit by that boulder the other time. And now, he was trying to wake everyone up—even Momo was asleep. He was talking to Toph now, but as you could see, she just wanted to get some rest.

"Yeah," Sokka responded to her "sleep in" comment. "But you don't usually stay in bed for so late into the day."

"It's _dawn_, idiot. I don't really think that's so 'late into the day'. Now lemme sleep."

The boy frowned. _D'oh! Right._ He had forgotten. "…Hey," he suddenly said, realizing something, "how do you know it's dawn—you can't see!"

She held up a little device, similar to the time-telling gadget Sokka had at the eclipse. "This little thing that The Mechanist gave me," Toph replied, a little annoyed that Sokka wouldn't leave her alone, "allows me to know what time it is."

She pressed a little button on the side of the "watch" the boy didn't notice earlier. It ticked a couple of times, and Toph listened carefully to the ticks it gave out. The Mechanist had designed it especially for her, considering he knew a thing or two about restrictions caused by disabilities… considering he had a son of his own who had one…

But that was beside the point. Come to think of it, Sokka realized, they had strayed _far_ from the point. "Wait a min—"

"Five thirty," Toph groaned. She frowned and buried her head in her makeshift cot. "Go away. It's _way_ too early to deal with you right now."

"I've been trying to tell you something, but you've been changing the subject!"

"Go away," she said with a deadpan voice.

"Do you realize we've all forgotten something real big? Our lives could be put in danger because of this!"

"Go away," she repeated, starting to fall back into some sleep.

"Hey, if you don't care about what I'm trying to say, you'll be sorry! You'll be locked in a coma for running into a bunch of firebenders, never to awaken again, all because we never could get a good hideout from them!"

This time, the only response Sokka heard was a bunch of snores from the now-sleeping girl.

"Fine," Sokka frowned. "I'll go tell someone else, then!" He stomped around the campsite, the sand muffling the sounds of each step he took. Toph sure didn't want to listen to him, but he knew someone who would…

"Katara, wake up." He gently shook his sister.

The girl's eyes didn't open, but she sure was up. She was so drowsy, though. "Leave. Me. Alone," she muttered bitterly.

"Leave me alone" was not exactly the response Sokka had expected, but he couldn't blame her. It was early, so Katara was being slightly cranky, yes, but Sokka didn't care. He had some big news and needed to tell her. "I've got some news," he told her.

"That you've finally managed to wake at the crack of dawn?" Katara yawned a little. "Good for you," she grumbled hazily.

"No, no, it's not that!" Sokka poked her, trying to get her to stay up. "We forgot something." He attempted to hold Katara to make her sit up, and she groaned.

"Not now." Her blue eyes were still half-lidded. Her head jerkily tilted back slightly.

"Katara!" Sokka whispered harshly, seeing she was going to sleep again. "We forgot something!" he repeated.

"What? Your courtesy to people who wanna _sleep_?" Katara slumped her back, her brother still holding her. "Look, if it's something important that can't wait 'til afternoon, go tell Aang, okay?"

Sokka sighed, and let her go. His head perked up as he searched the camp. Where _was_ Aang, anyway? He stood up, and started walking again. His blue eyes searched around, looking to find if any certain bald-headed kid was around. Big eyes, small feet, orange-yellow robes… He was going to consider "vegetarian" as one of Aang's characteristics, but… He didn't exactly know _how_ to tell if someone was vegan… At least not from a distance. In his opinion, the only way to figure that out was if someone was eating a pile of veggies or fruits in public… But who would do that? Not even Aang would, in his opinion.

Sokka shook his head, trying to concentrate on what he was doing. _Stupid brain. Focus on finding the boy!_

---

Actually, Aang _was_ eating a pile of fruits, but not in public, as Sokka had thought. He was in the woods, surrounded by trees, mud, and basically, nature. Not that he liked staying squatted in the ground—no. It was just that he needed a good hiding spot to stay safe from anyone who would have had the idea to nag at him for pigging out on so much fruit. He knew it was a bad thing to keep a secret, but it was not like he had killed someone. His secret wasn't serious.

_Unless they find me eating fruit under a tree with nothing but a bunch of flies stinging my face serious._ He shooed the bugs trying to bite him, but they just seemed to be so attracted to his fruity juice-stained face. Aang rubbed one his soft little cheeks, which ached from one of the stings he had gotten earlier. Sure, the flies were annoying, but, in his words: _As long as I can snack on as much fruit as I want, then you can try and get me, buggies!_ The boy roughly bit on an orange, still feeling hungry. Some of its juices spilled out on his lap, but he didn't care. He felt barbaric, yes, with him giving the occasional burp, and his little tummy was even bulging… But he was a growing boy, and he needed some food.

"Aang!" Grey eyes widened, and the young boy's hand lost its grip on the orange, which carelessly landed in the mud.

"Aang!" The color drained from his face the moment the voice called out his name once again. He didn't move… He just sat there and gulped. He couldn't even think anymore! _Gods! Just MOVE and LEAVE! Arrgh! Body, listen to me!_ He tried to get his legs to unfold and stand up, but it was like he couldn't even get to control his body. Finally, he gave up and just took in a deep breath. Whoever was looking for him, he or she probably wanted to nag at him from eating so much. Aang frowned, waiting for the person to find him, sitting perfectly still. _It's not like I can even control my body to relax anyway…_

He heard some grunting noises and the bushes rustled for a while, indicating that the person was having trouble with getting past the woods. Finally though, a figure popped out, and Aang looked up. "_Sokkaaaa…_aaah?"

At first, the young boy had been eager to see it was just Sokka… If it was Zuko_—_or even worse, _Katara_—the fruits could have been stolen from him, followed by a bunch of nagging. But Aang knew Sokka couldn't care less about how much stuff he ate…

But then seeing that Sokka looked deeply glum, the younger boy's smile dropped. "Something wrong?"

The other boy pouted. "I've been _trying_ to tell everyone that we've been forgetting something, but they just won't _listen_!" Saying this, he kicked a rock out of frustration.

Aang popped an orange wedge in his mouth. "And…?"

"Well, I came here to tell you that—"

"Yeah?" Aang picked up an apple after finishing off the orange.

"That… um…"

"Hm?" The boy poised himself to eat said apple.

"That that_something_…"

"Mmph?" Munching sounds followed as Aang happily chewed away.

"Is…well…" Sokka twitched as the crunching noises from the apple in the younger boy's mouth reached his ears. He growled. "Will you _pay attention_?!" He snatched the apple from Aang's hands and swiftly threw it away. In a far distance, it landed in a bush.

"Hey!" the younger boy groaned.

"I'm trying to tell you something!" Sokka scolded. "Listen up, okay?! Last night, you were too busy eating your precious fruit that you forgot that we had to leave the island for the _Western Air Temple_!" He started mocking, "'Oh hey, everyone! I'm Aang! I'd fly everyone else to the safest place we could possibly be from the Fire Nation, but I've just decided that I'm way too lazy and hungry to even bother! I'll just risk everybody's lives without a care, and sneak away to the forest to snack away happily, not giving a second thought of how big my belly's been getting"—here, he pointed at Aang's bulging tummy—"and not caring about how much work my dear friends—_especially_ Sokka—had to go through the other day to pack and get everything ready for the next flight! Yup! Life is _sweet_, with all the pretty butterflies, colorful rainbows and whatnot! Yay! And war? _What war_?'" At that point, Sokka had his eyes crossed, still pretending to be Aang. He was trying to prove his point in his impersonation by looking as stupid as possible. _'Cause, well, if I'm looking stupid… Maybe he'll understand what I'm getting at._

Aang furrowed his brow, and looked at his big stomach. He then looked up and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "So… are you calling me fat?"

"FAT?!" Sokka groaned, seeing that Aang didn't understand. He stomped on the ground, aggravated. "NO! THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M SAYING! I've been telling you this whole time that we have to leave! Now!" Aang frowned, still not getting it. Sokka yelled on. "Don't you remember?! Western Air Temple? You said you'd bring us there? Hellooooo?!"

Aang shook his head for a second, and leaned down for a bit. He tried to ponder on what Sokka was saying, but he just couldn't think straight. "I don't… remember…"

"Augh! You gotta be kidding!" Sokka gave up and sat down. Starting to get a headache, he rubbed his temples. He closed his eyes, stressed out on why Aang didn't recall that they had to go. He started thinking. _I did hear right, right? Aang _did_ say something about leaving after two days… or maybe I've been hallucinating…_

His thoughts were interrupted by another muffled crunch.

"Aang!" He growled, seeing that Aang had started chewing on a peach. "This is no time to be eating!"

The younger boy shot back, with a mouthful of peach, "Shayshoo."

"What?"

Aang swallowed. "Says you," he spat out bitterly, repeating his words.

Sokka frowned. Aang wasn't normally so rude, especially not at times like this. _But maybe he's just cranky. After all, it _is_ the crack of dawn…_ His head perked up, suddenly realizing that the sun had already come up! He didn't realize that he had been with the boy for so long! He stood up. "Aang, drop the peach. We have to reload Appa and get ready for the flight. We're leaving. We can't keep risking our lives wandering nowhere in the Fire Natio—" He stopped short.

His face paled in his realization. _Fire Nation! Everyone at the camp is probably up by now! And by everyone… that includes…_

_Zuko._

_Oh no! I left everyone else with _Zuko_! With the sun up! He's got the sun on his side! Toph and Katara might still be sleepy! And if that… that _Fire Nation scum_ tries anything to hurt them, they'll be done for!_

Sokka grabbed Aang's wrist, and pulled him, starting to run.

With the impact, the younger boy had dropped the peach. "Hey!" he exclaimed, trekking quickly along with Sokka. "What's the hurry?"

"Zuko! He might attack!"

"What?"

The older boy responded by tugging on his arm. "Run faster!"

"But Sokka—"

"_Run_!" He commanded.

"Zuko's on the good side now!"

"Says you!" Sokka shot back, repeating Aang's words. The two of them continued to run across the woods, searching for the campsite.

---

It was actually earlier than Sokka had thought. Zuko was just half asleep—obviously having no intention to hurt anyone at this time of day. At all. He sleepily stretched out, and curled up into a ball, then relaxed once again. Blindly, he reached out to grab anything. Feeling a warm, soft, fluffy item in his arms, he gently pulled it closer to his chest and sighed.

It was a habit. He had gotten used to doing that lately, ever since he had left the palace. He had to admit… He _did_ miss the soft pillows in his king-sized bed. It was comfy. And so, since he had started camping again, that meant sleeping on the cold, _hard_ ground. He didn't realize it, but out of homesickness, he had been doing this grab-whatever-object-you-find-when-you're-half-asleep-and-snuggle-with-it thing for a while.

Tonight's object was Momo.

Of course, Zuko didn't_know_ it was the lemur, but it was relaxing to cuddle against, so he didn't bother to even open his eyes to see what he was holding. He was too tired, and too ignorant to want to find out. It felt _nice_.

But Momo squeaked the moment the prince had gotten a hold of him. In fact, it was a little too close for his liking. Sure, he loved humans, but—even though Zuko found the whole thing comfortable—the poor lemur was just a little startled to be cuddled that way. And with his _enemy_, nonetheless.

Zuko hugged Momo tighter, hearing the squeak. That made the lemur squeak even MORE. The prince loosened his grip, not pleased by the noise. Subconsciously, he patted Momo's head, and the little pet purred in response.

But hearing some sounds in the distance, the lemur's ears perked up, trying to listen more. He wiggled completely out of Zuko's grasp, then stood up. Hearing faint noises, he turned to Zuko, and chattered at his ear.

The prince simply groaned, and shooed him away. Momo didn't stop, though, and heard the sounds coming even closer. He chatted even faster, warning the boy to get up. But Zuko didn't understand him, of course, and didn't listen. He slept away.

Until he heard the sounds himself. "Ngyah!" was what he picked up. His eyes opened, and he sat up. The lemur plopped on his lap, and chattered even more. He hushed Momo, and listened again.

"Ngyaaaaaaah!"

It sounded familiar, and but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. He stood up, wanting to figure it out.

"_Ngyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah_!"

He only realized it had been a shrill war cry when Sokka tackled him to the ground. A loud "_Thud_!" was heard as the two boys hit the dirt—well, sand. Zuko groaned from the impact, and yelled "Augh!" as he felt Sokka's hand go around his neck, pinning him to the ground.

"Ha!" Sokka boasted. "Trying anything funny, _pal_?" He furiously stared at the prince, a wicked smirk on his face. He turned to the younger boy behind him. "Good thing we were here before attacked, right, Aang?"

Aang frowned. "Sok_ka_—" he whined.

"Hey, what's going on?" Someone said behind them. It was Toph, who was rubbing the sleep off of her eyes.

"Sokka!" Katara called out, approaching them. "What are you _doing_?!"

"What's happening?" Haru followed her.

"Did I miss something?" Teo was right behind him, with The Duke at his side.

The young boy looked excited. "Cool! Hey, Sokka! Are you checking to see how long he can hold his breath?"

"What?" The Water Tribe boy was confused for a second, then he heard a strained cough below him. He looked down, seeing that Zuko's face was beet red. It turns out he had been choking Zuko the whole time! Having pity on the poor guy, he let go and got off of him.

Zuko immediately sat up, gasping for air. He had been caught off guard when Sokka attacked, so he wasn't even able to take a deep breath just the moment before he was tackled. "What did you _do_ that for?!" he screamed. He felt dizzy from not having so much air, so, with his bones feeling like jello, he unsteadily stood up. Everyone backed away, cautious if he was angry.

But he couldn't even think to figure out revenge! His sight was blurry, and his mind was whirring. He staggered away, his hand on his forehead, and walked to the opposite direction from where the group was.

At first, Katara thought he was just being a drama queen from his exaggerated acting, but the look on his face told him otherwise. You had to look hard, but you could see he had an expression… of agony. "Where are you going?" she called out, seeing that everyone else was simply staring at him warily.

"To the forest," a lightheaded Zuko weakly responded. "To throw up."

Barfing, well, at least for him, only happened on occasion… Zuko _was_ a strong boy, but he had a terribly weak stomach, especially when he couldn't breathe. Back in the day, when he was a little kid, at the times when Azula would hold a breath-holding contest, he always lost. Not just because Azula always cheated by breathing through her nose, but also because Zuko usually backed off at that kind of stuff. He knew what not being able to breathe did to him—he was squeamish. But when he was swimming at the North Pole… that was a different story. He was_evil_ back then. And apparently, being _evil_ kept him healthy… at least, that was what he thought. Probably because of all the hot air. Or maybe his ego told him not to be such a wimp. Yeeeaaah…

_Being good hurts so much_, he concluded, frowning. He groaned as he looked up, seeing that the forest seemed so far away. His legs felt wobbly, and he really wanted to hurl.

The others watched him carefully behind him, waiting for him to get there.

But before he even reached the woods, they were surprised to see Zuko faint, weaker than ever.

---

Zuko groaned even more, feeling that instead of the soft sand he had been laying on earlier, he was on a hard, rocky, path. He stirred a bit, slipping back into consciousness.

Seeing that he was up, the girl watching him looked up, eyeing him carefully as he slowly opened his eyes. "Good, you're awake."

His eyes quickly snapped open the moment he heard _her_. He immediately sat up, propping himself up with his right arm. His gold eyes locked on her_blue_ ones. "What are you doing here? Why are we alone? Where are we, girl?"

The girl answered none of his questions. "I have a name, you know," she said in a huff. "And I know you know what it is."

"Well, calling someone by their first name is a sign of respect." He stopped there, a scowl on his face. He didn't need to finish what he said for her to get the picture.

For a second, the girl looked confused. Then pained. Then just plain angry. But she didn't say anything. She looked away, and that was that. Silence took over, and none of them said a word, because they knew that if either of them spoke, a fight would erupt. And the only way to prevent that was to not talk to each other, at all. The pout on the girl's face went away, and Zuko's expression softened, as she went back to looking pained again. The girl's ego wasn't as big as the prince's, but still… she was sad. Sad that he had insulted her.

Zuko sighed, breaking the silence between them. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?" He rubbed the back of his neck, having not much to say. "To insult someone… Well, it's old habits, you know?"

The girl looked away.

Zuko continued on. "I mean—"

"Look," she finally responded, "just because I came here to heal you, it doesn't mean I care about you," she blurted.

The boy didn't seem irked with her bitter comment at all. He did, however, drop the smile he was attempting to give her, and went expressionless.

"Just lay down, okay?" she suddenly said, taking on her motherly mode, her grumpy tone gone. She looked at him, seeing that he was still sitting up.

He listened, setting his back towards the ground again. "So… you're healing?"

"What?"

"You said you were healing," he repeated, fiddling with his thumbs.

"Well… you don't feel sore? Your shoulder?"

"My sho…?" He raised his hand up to his right shoulder blade. He pressed against it, and cried out, feeling that it ached. "Augh!" he grimaced.

The girl edged closer. Earlier, she was just sitting a few feet away from him, so she didn't have to move far. "Here… let me…" She sat him back up.

"Ow!" Zuko yelped as he felt the girl's cold hand grab his right arm.

"Wait! Hold on…" she tried to examine him, but he was shaking too much.

"Let me go!"

"Hold on!" she commanded more firmly. Loosening the collar of his shirt, she looked closely. She cringed as she saw a red gash on his shoulder. A small gasp escaped her lips.

"What is it?"

"Your shoulder's skinned." Zuko stiffened as he felt the girl's hot breath on the crook of his neck. Then, a small shiver went down his spine, but it didn't feel too bad. But he was tensing up. Luckily, she eventually backed away.

"Where're you going?"

"To get my water skin. I have to heal you."

But Zuko simply pointed at the sea, showing that there was much more water there. The girl looked back at him, and glanced at what he was pointing towards. "Oh,_yeah_." She rolled her eyes. "Now, do you _really_ want salty water on your wound?"

The finger pointing was set down, as Zuko realized that she was right. His gold eyes watched as the girl wandered somewhere… But where it was, he didn't know. She disappeared to some place, but since he knew he couldn't follow her, he simply waited.

After a couple of moments, out of curiosity, he raised his hand up to the wounded shoulder. He almost cried out! Biting his lip to hold back any screams, he felt that the gash… was big. And it hurt—which was bad.

When the girl returned, Zuko saw that she was carrying a water skin that was so full that some of the liquid was leaking out of it. She sighed, making his eyes snap from the container, to her face.

She was beautiful. Her big blue eyes and her small nose made her look so young, but she looked so mature with that motherly expression of hers. The girl was very unique… he knew that would have never been able to find someone from the Fire Nation who was like that. They were either aggressive and ruthless—like Azula—or bubbly and perky—like Ty Lee. (As for Mai… Well, Mai was unique, too, but in a different way.)

The girl leaned down in front of him, water skin in hand. As she carefully bended out her element, Zuko told her, "I don't remember hitting my shoulder…" Here, he reached his hand up to touch it again, but the girl drew it away.

"It'll sting," she said. She didn't say anything else. "You don't wanna hurt yourself."

"I don't _remember_ hurting myself earlier either," Zuko shot back. "I know I fainted, but I don't think the sand was hard enough to skin me."

The girl sighed. "Well… You see, when Sokka—that's my brother—and Haru—that's the guy with the mustache—"

"I know who they are." Zuko shivered as he felt the girl bend the water to his wound.

"Yeah, let me finish," she responded stingily. "When the two of them were trying to figure out where to place you after you fainted, they headed to the woods." She bit her lip. "But Sokka was dragging you too fast, and Haru couldn't keep up. So, your body tilted and your shoulder collided with, well… a tree. Its bark scratched you," the girl finished. She frowned as she saw him cringe.

"But," she added, trying to relieve him, "the wound doesn't look like anything serious…"

But Zuko was getting worried.

Though, after a few moments of healing, he realized that she was right. The wound was gone. The gash went away, and so did the pain. There was not a trace left from his scratch. Zuko sighed in relief. Slowly, he looked up at the girl, not saying anything. His face, though, gave her a sign that he was grateful.

She smirked. "Your welcome," she answered, standing up again.

For the second time, silence fell, but not because they were trying to avoid each other. Now, they didn't know what to say. There was not a single thing they could think up that could be a conversation starter… besides the war. But they both knew that bringing _that_ up would be a bad idea.

Seeing that the girl was not going to talk, Zuko drew his attention to other things. He glanced around, trying to figure out where he was. Clearly, though, he was still on the island, seeing that there was a familiar sea nearby. But what confused him was that no one but the girl was around. Not the Avatar, not the buffoon, not the earthbenders… no one. His gold eyes darted around the whole place, hoping if he could find anyone, but all he saw were boulders, the sea, and the ground.

"…Where are we?" he finally asked.

"Huh…?" The girl snapped her head back to attention. It turned out that she was staring at the sea as well. Her big blue eyes shined in the sunlight, as she took one final glance at the water, then back at Zuko.

Zuko cleared his throat. "Where are we?" he repeated. His face was slightly twisted with worry, as his eyes shifted back and forth around the place.

"At the other end of the beach." She pointed to the opposite direction. "The campsite's way over there."

He frowned in response.

"They're packing up for the next flight," the girl continued. "Appa's being loaded, because we're heading to the Western Air Temple. We'll be leaving in a couple of hours, some time around afternoon."

Zuko stood up, his eyebrows creasing. "I'll help pack."

"What? No! You don't have to go… do you?"

"I can't stay useless and just stand here! I didn't come to help the Avatar by… not helping!"

The girl gulped as he started to head to the campsite. "No! Don't go!" she called. The prince looked back, his expression softened and confused.

The truth was that while Zuko was unconscious, Sokka used this as an advantage to tell everyone that they'd be leaving to the Western Air Temple that day. He had actually suggested them to leave Zuko, because he didn't trust him, but almost everyone found that ridiculous—including Katara, even if she hated Zuko herself. Then, everyone looked at the poor unconscious boy's body and they decided to move him somewhere else for a bit. ("He looks like he's _dead_!" The Duke screamed. "And it's creeping me out! Can't you guys take him to another part of the beach for a while, or something?" Everyone agreed with him.) Sokka and Haru were the ones who volunteered to pull him. But, as you had heard, Zuko got his shoulder skinned in the process. Everyone looked at his limp body to see if he was okay. They—but except Katara—saw the wound. They were crowded up so tightly around Zuko that Katara had to hop and look over their shoulders to even see him. Thinking that the prince really _was_ dead, Sokka then became excited and happily told everyone to hold up a funeral. Everyone laughed at his little bitter joke—except Aang and Katara. Those two were the more mature ones of the group, and they knew Zuko needed to be healed. Katara volunteered herself to do so, and so she could have a closer look of the wound, since she hadn't seen it earlier. Sokka objected to her to even let her alone with _Zuko_, but Katara insisted that she could handle the prince if he even bothered to attack her. Sokka gave in, and he and Haru dragged the unconscious boy's body to where Katara said was the best place to put him: across the beach, and by the sea. That way, the rest of the group could pack up the bags for the next trip without having to worry about Zuko attacking them, _and_ with her element at her side, Katara could be armed if he woke up. Before he left the two alone, Sokka, being the worrying brother he is, reminded her to be careful, and to not let Zuko disrupt their packing if he ever managed to get up.

And THAT was why Katara, who was the girl with Zuko the whole time, obviously, was calling the prince to come back.

"Please," she said weakly, "you—you can't go."

Zuko raised an eyebrow.

"You WON'T go," Katara demanded more firmly.

He pouted. Not in a childish manner, though, but in a more "you're not the boss of me" kind of way. Stubbornly, he turned back, ignored her, and kept on heading to the camp.

"No!" Katara bit her lip. "Stop. _Stop_!"

Zuko listened, and stopped walking. Katara could hear the prince sigh in frustration. Again, he turned to her. He sent her a glare and asked, "Why won't you just let me leave?"

"Sokka told me to keep you _away_ from the campsite, okay? So you can't go."

"Why not?"

"'Cause they don't_trust you_," she emphasized, furrowing her brow. "Don't you get it?! You were our enemy—it's not like we can welcome you in our group with open arms. Not immediately," she added.

"But I thought I had formed an alliance—"

"Yeah, with Aang. But Sokka sure doesn't agree." In a small voice, she added, "And I know I don't."

Apparently, Zuko hadn't heard her. Instead, he said. "'Sokka', huh? The buffoon?"

"My brother's not a buffoon!" she defended.

He looked away.

Katara opened her mouth to say something else, when Zuko interrupted her. "Why don't they trust me?" he asked in a sad voice. "Why don't _you_ trust me?" He glanced at her momentarily, and he stared at the ground.

Katara frowned. She had not expected him to do something like that—to ask her such an obvious question, but with such a small voice. "Well… I…"

"It's not because of what had happened at Ba Sing Se… is it?"

The girl looked away, trying to avoid his gaze. He was right—that was mostly why she hated him. But if she told him that, she would appear as a pathetic grudge-holder. What had happened at the time now seemed like a small thing, so she figured that she would have looked like she had overreacted over something so far into the past. That had happened_weeks_ ago. But…if she simply responded that it was because he had been their enemy for so long, she would be lying—even though that was part of the reason. So, she quickly put together in her numb brain that technically, it _wasn't_ a lie to say the latter…

"…Part of it," she answered slowly.

Zuko blinked, and noticed that she was avoiding his eyes… showing him that she wasn't feeling comfortable with what had happened at the time. He stared solemnly at her small little form.

Not hearing a response from him, Katara glanced up to see what he was doing. Her heart leapt as she saw that he was staring directly at her. Gold eyes met blue, and they had nothing to say to each other. The heat crept to Katara's delicate face, and a subtle, rosy blush formed on her cheeks. Zuko's eyes were filled with the greatest sincerity, and a silent sadness.

"Calling someone by their first name is a sign of respect," Zuko finally told her softly, repeating what he had said earlier. "I'm sorry… Katara," he apologized sincerely.

A small smile was shown on the girl's features. Her eyes were happy, and forgiving. The same motherly essence that was always with her gave Zuko the relieving feeling that the pain he had caused her was gone. It gave him a reason to smile a very… little smile as well.

As Zuko and Katara slowly reached out to each other to hold their hands, both of them ignored the sounds in the distance. Somebody was calling:

"…Kataraaaaa!"

But neither of the teens heard it, and were not disturbed. Zuko gently pulled the girl close…

"Kataraaaaaaaa!"

…and engulfed her in a friendly hug.

"_Kataraaaaaaaaaaaa_!"

The voice calling out Katara's name was becoming more and more hysterical, but still, neither she nor Zuko paid attention.

The girl blushed even more as she felt herself in the prince's strong arms. If she had been hugged by him weeks ago, she would have gasped, and screamed her tonsils out. But instead, there were butterflies in her stomach, her heart was beating fast, her mind going aflutter. Of course, it was just a little hug—as newfound _friends_. So it wasn't like they "loved" each other… Noooo…

Zuko smiled even more as he felt her heart rapidly beating against his. So she was enjoying it too, eh? He leaned in and tightened the hug, not noticing that the girl had an awfully happy expression on her face. Her head was now leaning on the crook of his neck, the back of her head turned to his ear.

Katara blushed a deep crimson in realization that she had gotten too close to Zuko, when Sokka had told her earlier to keep the distance. For a second, she simply stood still, not wanting to let go. But finally, she broke the hug, gently pushing Zuko away. The moment they had stopped, they did not have anything to say. An awkward silence fell between them for a while, until Zuko asked her, stuttering slightly, "As… F—friends, right?"

Katara gave him a pleasant smile in return. If this kept happening, they would be kept on good terms for a long, long time.

"_Kaaaaa! Taaaaaa! Raaaaa!_"

The girl perked her head up in attention. This was the first time she had actually noticed that someone was calling to her.

"_Katara, if you can hear me, get here RIGHT NOW. And bring Fire Scum with you._"

Zuko had heard it too. "…'Fire Scum'?" he questioned.

Katara bit her lip. "Fire Scum" was a nickname Sokka had come up for Zuko over the time the prince was unconscious. But she knew very well that would Sokka would never really call him that if the older boy could _hear it_. _He probably thinks Zuko isn't up yet,_ she concluded.

Then, getting her mind on other things, she answered, "Oh… it's nothing, really. And we have to go. I think they finished packing up."

The boy nodded, and together, they walked towards where the campsite was.

When they reached there, they both saw that not much had changed. Teo and The Duke were playing around with Momo again, and Toph and Haru were practicing earthbending once more. (Except on a much smaller scale this time, for safety: Toph's space rock.) The only difference was that Appa was now loaded with all the group's supplies.

Katara smiled, seeing that Sokka was with Aang, putting up some finishing touches on Appa. "So… are we leaving?"

Her brother's face drooped bitterly. "I wish," she heard him mutter. "Hey, Aang," he called, "How 'bout we go?"

"Okay!" was the young boy's eager response. Quickly, he airbended himself up on the bison with ease, but once he got there, he didn't know what to do next.

…At least, that was what it _seemed_ like.

"Alright, Appa, you know what to do!" Aang smiled at his pet, and waited for something to happen.

And nothing _did_ happen. "Um… buddy?" the kid asked the bison. "C'mon, we gotta leave! Fly. Now. Please?"

Katara raised her eyebrow, as she continued to listen to what Aang was saying: "Y'know—fly? When your tail does that 'Swooshy' thing and you go up in the air? Remember that? Buddy? Helloooo?"

The girl felt a little tap on her shoulder. She turned around in response, and found herself staring straight at her brother. "That's been going for a while," Sokka told her, with his voice low so that Aang couldn't hear him. "He has no idea how to pilot Appa anymore. It's like he just lost his mind!"

Katara shook her head. "Now that's just ridicu—"

"It's not ridiculous!" Sokka retorted, speaking in a harsh whisper. "Look again."

Both teens perked their heads up, and watched as Aang tried to command his bison—and continuously fail. Now, he was trying to give out weird calls—probably trying to remember the words "yip-yip".

Most of the words he was lashing out were pretty stupid. "Shoop da whoop" and "Kablamo" were some of them. Of course, Appa didn't understand a thing he was saying, and didn't move a muscle. All he did was give the boy a confused look the whole time. This was when Katara and Sokka started listening again.

"…Ohhhh, the fur of the bison goes 'Flutter, flutter, flutter!' …'Flutter, flutter, flutter!' ……'Flutter, flutter, flutter!' …The fur of the bison goes 'Flutter, flutter, flutter!' as flies across the wiiind!" he sang, giving a little dance.

But his little song made Appa misunderstand. Instead of flying, the bison danced along with his master!

"No, no, no, boy!" Aang stood still again, and Appa stopped. "Fly, not dance!"

Katara frowned and put her attention back on Sokka. "I guess you're right." She shot him a worried look. "Aang!" she called. "Can you come down here for a sec?" The younger boy looked at her, on the top of his bison's head, and came down. He approached her, a bright smile on his face.

"Yeah?"

"I'm… a little worried about you. Are you feeling okay? Did you get hit in the head while packing?"

The boy looked confused, hearing her odd question. "Um…no." He gave a good-natured laugh. "Why do you ask?"

"Because there's never really been a time when you had so much trouble with getting Appa to fly."

"…I'm not having any trouble," Aang insisted.

Katara gave him a questioning look.

"Alright, maybe I _am_ having a little—but I didn't get hit in the head, that's for sure." Suddenly, he pulled out an item from under his robes. Katara caught a glimpse that it was a small berry. The boy quickly popped it in his mouth, and shifted his eyes to see if anyone had saw him. Apparently, no one had, since everyone else was busying themselves. Aang stared at Katara, aware that she had been watching him. He shot her a small little wink. "Don't tell okay?" he whispered.

The girl didn't answer, but she did smile in amusement.

"Okaaaaay," Sokka gathered everyone. "Time to go! Everything's all set!" While Aang and Katara had been talking, the Water Tribe boy and Zuko were making sure all the stuff was in place. The prince was still with the bison, examining the creature up close out of curiosity. Momo sat on one of Appa's horns, and was staring down at Zuko.

Meanwhile, Haru, Toph and The Duke fiddled with Teo's wheelchair a bit so that they lift him up without dropping him. ("On the count of three—One… two… THREE!—Argh! Why didn't you lift it?!—You didn't say 'lift'!—I said 'on the count of three'!—Yeah. 'One, two, three… then lift'!—Fine, then! On 'lift'!") After a few moments of bickering, they finally got Teo up. All four then quickly got on the bison, with Sokka and Zuko following soon after.

Aang swiftly hoisted himself on the front seat, and Katara got up from the back, with Appa lifting her using his tail.

They were ready to go. Aang lifted the reins.

"C'mon, Appa! Yabba Dabba!"

The bison didn't respond, and simply gave him a confused groan. In the back of the creature, Sokka slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Aang," he asked the younger boy, "how 'bout I pilot Appa this time?"

"But… but I can handle it!" he retorted. But seeing that Katara was giving him a frown, and quickly gave in. "Fine, fine."

Sokka stood up, walked up to the front, and grabbed hold of the reins. Aang switched to his place, way in the back. Katara sat next to him. Both of them smiled, and each of them leaned in against their backs.

"Alright, Appa," the new pilot said. "Yip-yip!"

With that, they took off.

Now up in the air, Aang stared at the clouds. "'Yip-yip'!" he muttered stupidly. "Aw, how could I have forgotten that?!" Katara patted his back gently to comfort him. The boy looked up at her and gave her a small, mischievous grin. Like he had done earlier, his eyes shifted quickly to see if anyone was watching. Since they were sitting at the back, no one even noticed them. In a flash, he (gently) shrugged off the girl's hand and scrambled off even further to the end of the bison—where the bags and supplies were.

Meanwhile, across the saddle, the newbie—Zuko, of course—shook in fear. He was sitting in the middle of the saddle, away from the edges, just in case he looked down. He was in a little (and somewhat pathetic) crouched position. The moment Appa had took off, he felt _terrified_. He wasn't afraid of heights—riding in that hot air balloon days ago didn't scare him one bit—it was just that the whole "ride the animal you had pursued for months back when you were evil" thing made him feel uncomfortable. Back in the day, when he had watched the Avatar fly on his bison through a simple telescope on little ship in the middle of nowhere, it seemed that they were flying with ease. But this ride felt a little bumpier than he had expected.

"Hey," told a voice behind him. He sat up with his back straight, springing into attention. Zuko turned around, and saw the blind girl—the one he knew came by the name of… Toph. A smirk graced her lips. "You scared?"

The prince's face flushed a pale color in embarrassment. "I—I'm not scared! What makes you think that?!"

"Look, on this leather saddle, I can't feel you shaking. But even from other there"—here she pointed to the spot where she was originally sitting—"I can hear your teeth chattering from shaking so much."

Zuko's eyes widened. The little girl seemed to know much more than she was letting on. Apparently, she was smarter than he had thought. The smirk on her face spread even more when she heard, the moment she had told him that, the chattering noises stop. "Well, it's my first time, okay?!"

"Aw, man up. How 'bout you sit with me at the edge?"

"I'd rather stay here. In the middle. Where it's safe. And by safe, I mean not fall off."

Toph glanced around. "Oh, really? Because if I were to tell everyone that our new member is such a wimp, they'd see you as useless and weak, and they may even get you off the group." She smugly gave him a knowing smile.

Zuko frowned. Was she exaggerating? He sure hoped she was. But if something as simple as staying in the middle of the saddle would ruin his chances of keeping his alliance with the Avatar, he might as well listen to her. He was still the awkward point of fully gaining the group's trust, so he considered not risking anything.

Hesitantly, he stood up (squinting his eyes so he wouldn't look down) and followed the blind girl to her spot. (Though, apparently, it was _him_ leading _her_, because she was simply clinging on to his arm the whole time they were walking—good thing Sokka was too busy piloting Appa that he couldn't look over his shoulder to see them.) Zuko was biting his lip along the way. When they got to the edge, the two of them sat down again, and the boy's belly flopped as Toph leaned in to him for protection.

Up in the front, Sokka's arms were cramping from holding on to Appa's reins and not doing anything for so long. From his hunched position, he stretched out a bit, to get a good flow on his back. He yawned a bit, and under him, Appa groaned as well. Sokka looked down at the bison's head and told him, "Think you can go on without a pilot for a while, boy?" The bison answered with a friendly roar. Sokka sighed in relief and let go of the reins. He boy flopped down and lied down on his back, his tensed-up muscle starting to relax. His eyes began to close slightly. With them half-lidded, Sokka smiled and prepared to fall into a small nap.

"Aang, what are you doing?!"

Sokka's eyes snapped open again, and he sat up. He frowned, seeing that in the very back of the bison, a child sat somewhat "innocently," with one of the sacks of their supplies open. The child—Aang—had his face was smothered with a familiar substance: berry juice. Katara, the one who had called at him, had her mouth agape.

The boy's blue eyes widened in realization: Aang was eating all that fruit again!

Aang realized that everyone was staring at him, and he tried to put on the most apologetic smile he had ever showed. "Erm… I can explain!"

"Oh, we already know," Sokka said with a disappointed tone. "You took some of the fruit we were _all_ supposed to share! Again!"

Katara bit her lip, and glanced at the sack, then back at her brother. "Well, not exactly 'some'…"

Sokka frowned. "Plenty?"

"No." Lines of worry were visible on the girl's young face.

"No?"

"All."

"_All_?!" her brother repeated, angry. His glare turned to Aang. "You ate _all_ of the fruit?!"

The young boy looked down in embarrassment.

"But we had three sacks of those!"

Aang burped in response.

"Grrr!" Sokka growled in frustration. He stood up and stomped across the saddle, and harshly pushed Aang away from where he was sitting. What he had originally thought as just one sack of supplies was actually three. And they were all empty! "No! What are we gonna eat when we gonna eat when get to the Western Air Temple?" He fiddled with the bag he wore that went across his chest, and blindly reached for something, which was a map of the Fire Nation. It had a bunch of messy red X's scattered across it, indicating the all the pit stops they had made.

Blue eyes searched around the map. "Okay, so if we're over here…" he mumbled to himself, "and the island we last went to is an hour away… that we means we can't head back there, because that would that triple our travel time, making its total three hours, and that's too long… so our best bet is to head to this island, since it's only fifty minutes away, plus it heads to the direction to go for the Western Air Temple, and that's a good thing… the problem is that that village is in the middle of a trade route… and that means shipping, and that means ships, and _that_ means captains that probably know the Fire Lord well, and can tell him about our position immediately…" He set down the map and groaned. "So the BEST thing to do," he shouted out his conclusion so everyone could hear him, "is to head straight to the Western Air Temple without any stops! And it's two hours away. No bathroom breaks doing so!"

Everyone else groaned with him upon hearing this.

Soon after Sokka set down the map, a pale hand reached for it snatched it away. Sokka's eyes widened in attention and looked down to see who had done that. He furrowed his brows, seeing that it was none other than Zuko. "Hey! Give me my map back!"

Zuko raised his free hand (as the other held the actual map) to silence the boy. His eyes looked around, calculating the distances of all the stops. After about a minute, he gazed at everyone. "Well, I remember hearing about an island that was so small, you could barely see it on any map." He held up the parchment. "It should be… right about…_here_." His finger was pointed at an area that just looked like the ocean. He was right. None of them could see the island. "Normally, you could see just a dot pointing out where it is. But there's so much food stains on this thing that I can barely make even the biggest details—"

"I was hungry," Sokka interrupted, "and I didn't notice that I knocked down some soy sauce on it, okay?!

"—on it," Zuko continued, ignoring him. "But I swear, there _is_ a village, and there _is_ an island. We can stop there."

The rest looked at each other, trying to figure out if they could trust him or not. Katara then spoke. "And how can we be sure that this is true?" she asked him suspiciously.

"Back in the days of my childhood, it was mandatory for a prince to learn of every single island's history. _It took ten years,_" he added under his breath. He continued: "_This_ island was isolated back then, until the war started. Since the army was spending too much money on armor and weapons, part of the society lost most of their wealth."

He heard the blind girl next to him yawn, but he kept on talking, "With the common families becoming poorer and poorer, they migrated to an island where they could learn other cultures just within arm's reach. The island was small, and they barely learned much from the airbenders up north, so the locals of the lone village on that island remained uneducated. Up to this day, the people of that island are still poor—even barbaric at times. They don't have much contact with the rest of the Fire Nation, so probably won't even know that _you_"—he pointed to the Avatar—"exist."

The rest remained quiet, each of them pondering on what he had said. Finally, they gave their opinions. Almost everyone agreed with Zuko—that they should go to the island. But one of them was skeptical.

"Wait," said Sokka, "one of the only reasons that we're stopping is because Aang ate all our food. Do they have a market?"

"To buy fruit?" Aang added, frowning at the empty sacks.

Zuko scratched the back of his head, racking his brains to remember anything mentioned in ten years of studies about a market. After a moment of thinking, he snapped his fingers. "It's got a big population, so the chances of merchants traveling there are pretty big."

"Close enough." Sokka nodded. "So… which way is it?"

Beside them, Aang sat up, pointing at something "Hey, look! What's that?"

It was like it had all happened on cue. Out on the ocean, almost in the middle of nowhere… sat an island. Aang and Zuko looked over the saddle, and peered down.

It looked so small—like a small patch of brown and red right on the entire ocean blue, from the bird's eye view they had. Zuko's gold eyes widened in realization. "Th—that's it! That's the island!"

---

**A/N: **I made it! I finished it! I FINALLY finished it! –is hyperventilating- This chapter was meant to be MUCH smaller, but I wanted to bulk it up since it's been… two months since I updated. P: Oh guilt, how you've attacked me so!

I guess all that writing is starting to make me go crazy. But that's okay, craziness is fun. I'm kind of upset with how bland this chapter came out, though. So sad.

Writing this was so much fun—specifically with the Zutara bits! 8D The only problem was that I had to redo some parts. For instance, the first part was supposed to be more dramatic, but I decided to keep it more awkward, because that was how the scene was left in the previous chapter. Besides… I hate drama. But I guess you could easily guess that, since I'm the type to use a smiley for almost every other sentence. Wheeee!

Okay, I'll stop. Just go ahead and review. –cough OR DAI cough-


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